It's nice for us to sit here and complain about not wanting to pay for people from other countries. However you have to question why people in other countries are unable to afford an education or do not have a proper education system or even a decent infrastructure in the country. I dont want to make this into a political issue however it really makes me angry when I hear UK citizens complaining about not wishing to pay for people from third world countries ( namely countries in Africa, India and so forth).Lets be real here if it wasnt for past events we wpuld not be any position to make such comments.

i think you must be missing the point here. what am trying to say is that, we should all be on equal footings because at the end of the day you can work in any country and contribute to the socio-economic development of that country the world as a whole. If that is the case why differentiate when looking for propective studentships.

i know there is a lot of funding gap but the status quo needs looking at.

shanghaichica I'm not saying I don't think the UK should be funding for international students at all. I think its a good thing and I love having people from all over in my research group. In my department there are lots of funded PhD international students and it makes me think the balance is fine. This is still a UK university and you would expect more UK students than any others, no?

I don't agree with wuyeh who thinks he/she should get funding just because he/she comes from Africa. There are lots of African students who get funding, wuyeh is unlucky they haven't.

So we should now address the balance of how many international funded students just because wuyeh hasn't got funding?

How do you suggest we pay for them? What do you suggest we cut? UK-nationals postgraduate funding. The limited funding that goes to undergrads. How about out of the health service budget, there loads of money there thats surplus.

Its not an ideal world, nor is there a money tree growing in the gardens of the Dept. of Education. I'm being very real here. I also think this country as a whole does 'its bit' for others re overseas aid. £50billion is no small amount after all is it?

H, you are totally missing the point here. I paid for myself to do my MSc in Public Health and can pay for my PhD likewise.

The issue in hand here is why do institutions differentiate when they are seeking for studentship? if it was open to all, there would be better competition and equal access. Thats what am highlighting and not because i don't have studentship.

Isn't the answer to your question obvious?

Im not saying that we should pay for them that is not practical. My issue was about people complaining about paying for international students and extends to the wider issue of people complaining about paying for people from other countries.

No I wasn't complaining about the UK councils funding international students, I was basically complaining about wuyeh saying that even though the money comes from the UK people, it should be shared equally between all the people of the world. Is that fair?

It isn't and anyone who thinks otherwise is rather out of step with public opinion on this one. Ask a few people see what answer you get.

They aren't discriminating, they are just saying funding is available for UK/EU. They aren't saying you cant apply for that PhD. But you would have to fund it yourself. Common sense here people.

I feel no obligation to pay for a student from another country outside the EU unless that country had a reciprocal amount of funding for those in the UK/EU. That is what the majority of British tax payers think and therefore it wont change. Deal with it.

wuyeh, you are repeating yourself on your replies in my opinion. You are accusing people for "missing the point" over and over, but you are not paying attention to people's (very logical) opinions just because they are not confirming what you say.

I am sure we have had this sort of discussion on here before and it has been met with similar responses I agree with Golfpro and H. There is funding available for international students but the UK and the EU can't support everyone, its hard enough getting funding if you are a home student. It would be nice is we lived in a perfect world where money flowed freely between nations.. but we don't.. Would a UK/EU student get funding if they applied to your country? Its all very one way.

When I was applying for studentships I didn't approach another country for funding.. partly because it didn't cross my mind and secondly why should I expect another country to fund me when I have done nothing to contribute to that country.

Another thing to appreciate with regards to UK/EU funding is that the students eligible are most likely to stay within the UK or EU on finishing their PhD and thus continue to contibute to the UK/EU research community, so its almost like an investment.